It looks like Magic is about to cast its spell on a new generation. Lionsgate is rebooting the 1978 cult horror, the one that gave Anthony Hopkins an early taste of terror as a mentally unravelling ventriloquist.
The new version is being produced by horror legend Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) and Roy Lee (Weapons). Script duties fall to Mark Swift & Damian Shannon (Freddy vs. Jason, Friday the 13th remake), promising plenty of slasher-savvy scares.
For those who haven’t seen it—or need reminding—the original Magic (1978), directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, and Burgess Meredith, followed struggling magician Charles “Corky” Withers. After a nudge from his mentor, Corky adds a foul-mouthed ventriloquist dummy, Fats, to his act—and boom, he’s suddenly a star. Just as he’s about to land his own TV show, Corky bolts to the Catskills, terrified a medical exam will expose his fragile mind. There, he reconnects with high-school crush Peggy Ann Snow, now stuck in a passionless marriage with his old buddy Duke—only to discover that Fats has his own murderous agenda. With a sharp script by William Goldman and a haunting Jerry Goldsmith score, Magic remains a tense, darkly comic classic of psychological horror.
The reboot is guided by longtime devotees Chris Hammond and Tim Sullivan, alongside Raimi, Lee, and Zainab Azizi from Raimi Productions. Executive producers Paul Fishkin and Vertigo’s Andrew Childs are also in the mix. Lionsgate, Hammond, and Sullivan went the extra mile tracking down the surviving rights holders to make this reboot happen, proving that no dummy gets left behind.
Here’s hoping we’ll soon be staring into Fats’ cold, dead eyes all over again…
